


Selenia in Bloom

by enmity



Category: Tales of Series, Tales of the Abyss
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-08-17 14:21:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16518119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enmity/pseuds/enmity
Summary: She has learned to savor instead of covet.





	Selenia in Bloom

There are times when Tear cannot bear to look at her instructor.

There is a feeling that jolts up her spine: fleeting like rare sunlight filtered through streaks of poison, the glimpse of blonde hair tucked absently behind an ear, thin lips pressed into the curve of an almost-smile. Gone as quickly as it appears, though brevity leaves its mark all the same. The flowers have taught her that beauty lies in transience—and there aren’t many to go around, not here in the qliphoth—but sometimes her fingertips yearn for what does not break so easily beneath her touch.

_Loves me not._

Her heartbeat is a butterfly, brittle wings threatening to leap. Tear swallows, and looks at her hands. She has learned to savor instead of covet.

“Tear?”

Her eyes flick up, automatic, at Legretta’s voice. The battlefield sets a steep price for distractions. “Yes, Major.”

“You’ve done well. Training is over for now.” Legretta turns her back, and breathing—wanting—becomes a little easier. “Go home and rest up.”

“Yes,” she says, a toneless agreement, and a moment later, “Will you be returning to Daath?” It slips out before she can help it. She hates, then, how childish she had sounded; the neediness she couldn’t keep from seeping into her voice.

If the Major notices, she does not say so. “I leave tomorrow.”

“I see.”

“I shall report your progress to the Commandant. I believe he will be pleased to hear it.”

“Thank you, Major,” Tear says, without falter, and goes home to sit by her flowerbed, where she counts a petal for every word she chooses to leave unsaid.


End file.
